365 Games To Play Before You Die - #149: Chrono Trigger
by mracoon
365 Games To Play Before You Die Exams are over and summer has begun so I can finally get back to finishing this. I've got to get through 245 games in 18 days if I want to stick finishing this ordeal in one year and in time for GB's 2nd Birthday. From now on I'm only going to focus on the important games and all the other games in-between will be in a handy list. So where did we leave off? RPGs...
365 Games To Play Before You Die
Exams are over and summer has begun so I can finally get back to finishing this. I've got to get through 245 games in 18 days if I want to stick finishing this ordeal in one year and in time for GB's 2nd Birthday. From now on I'm only going to focus on the important games and all the other games in-between will be in a handy list. So where did we leave off? RPGs you say. Well your in for a treat because today it's the grandaddy of all JRPGs (no, it's not FF VII).
Full List of Games
#149: Chrono Trigger
Platform(s): SNES, PS1 and DSRelease: 1995
Developer(s): Square
Best Quote: 'If history is to change, let it change. If the world is to be destroyed, so be it. If my fate is to die, I must simply laugh.' - Magus
GB Wiki Page (One of the best Wiki pages on the site)
I never played Chrono Trigger on the SNES but instead on the Final Fantasy Chronicles compilation for the PS1. Unfortunately, that version of the game suffered from dreadful load times. For lesser games that issue may have been a problem but no for Chrono Trigger. I gladly waited for the next area or battle to load up so I could continue the quest of Crono and his friends to defeat Lavos and save the world. You might say that that's basically the story of every JRPG and you'd be right, but Chrono Trigger's unique use of time travel and instantly memorable characters sets it far apart from the rest. I don't recall any other game at the time having a story which incorporates time travel in such well crafted way and even today there are few games that have done it right.
As a person who had started to get tired of random battles it was nice to see a fresh take in Chrono Trigger. Instead enemies appearing out of the blue, you were able to see your enemies on-screen and that meant you could avoid some fights. It also meant that there wasn't an annoying transition every minute from the overworld screen the battle (although the load times on occasions made it feel like there was).
There isn't much more I can add that hasn't been said by a million other people. Chrono Trigger is referred to as the greatest RPG of all time for a reason. That statement isn't a hyperbole and isn't because of nostalgia either. I could go back and play the game today and it would hold up just as well as when it was first released, something which couldn't be said for most of the games that came out at that time.
149 down 216 to go.